One of my favorite positive affirmations that I remind myself of daily is “There’s no need to push yourself. You can take as small a step forward as you choose.”
When I first started using positive affirmations, I liked this one because it calmed me down, and made me feel safe. At the time I started using it, I was aggressively trying to gain weight by taking weight gaining supplements, counting my calories, and force feeding myself when I wasn’t hungry. I wrote a post called, “My Healthy My Happy” where I decided that I was putting too much pressure on myself which was causing more anxiety. That’s when I posted a picture of a footprint in the sand on my cubicle wall right next to my monitor at work that represented the positive affirmation above. It’s something that no one else would know its meaning except for me, and I can remind myself often that I don’t have to push myself.
The underlying fear of trusting this affirmation is that I would never make any progress. I do want to gain weight, but I also want to be as anxiety free as possible. So I decided to work first on my anxiety and then when I get to a better place I could refocus on my weight.
Around this same time, I was around 106 pounds. That was after I had gained almost 10 lbs. I went on vacation to Hawaii where I had major panic attacks daily because I was off of my medication (because I didn’t wait long enough for it to work before I decided it was useless, bad decision) and I didn’t have enough Clonozepam with me because I thought I would be fine. (Another painful but important lesson I learned). When I got home from vacation I was down to around 99-100 lbs. I had lost all my progress of weight that I had gained. It was a horrible setback for me. I felt like I would never recover and I would never be able to gain the weight back.
That was back in April. I am pleased to say that I now weigh 105- 106 again and I haven’t been trying to gain weight at all. I have been really good at listening to my body, eating when I am hungry, and stopping when I am full. It’s very cool because before it was really hard work to gain the weight. This time I haven’t focused on it at all, rather I have been focusing on my anxiety instead.
So I wanted to let others know that positive affirmations really do work. They don’t hold you back from progress, but they can help you achieve success.
I hope everyone has a panic free Thanksgiving tomorrow. Thanks for all of your support and well wishes.
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1 comment:
Hello Aimee, congratulations for your blog! My name is Lorena and I read your blog from Argentina (so, I apologize for my english; I will try to do my best)
I had panic attacks from 2003 to 2008, when symptoms dissappeared after treatment. I was in psichiatric treatment, and terapy as well, buy in Argentina is very common the psicoanalitic terapy, and let me tell you, it did not work for me. I was medicated with Zoloft, and it made me feel sick most of the days.
In 2009 I started to feel very very sad and worried about having another panic attack. The new diagnosis I received was GAD (General Anxiety Disorder). I started to lose weight because when I had the panic attack I felt very similar as you, and I throw up, so I started to avoid lunch at the office, going out for dinner with my boyfriend, and so on with the fear of throwing up in public places.
I read what you say and I can´t believe how I see myself in your words.
I started cognitive behavioral therapy and that was great! I recovered my sense of humor, my passion for the things I love, I got married 4 months ago and I am enjoying life. Naturally, I always monitor myself and my mind because I tend to suffer from anxiety and excessively worry about little things (well... about everything) but I know I will go on.
I was frustrated because in 2004 I graduate as a psychologist. I have a very happy childhood, an excellent family I did not study this because of problems with myself I tried to resolve... and then, at the end of the road, almost graduated I started feeling like this. Now I know I had always suffered from anxiety and that now I realize it, and I am trying to help people with this problem, both, as a patient and as a psychologist.
This is an excellent work you are doing, thanks for your generosity and for sharing your experience with us.
(I am trying to have a baby and I laugh when I read the same worries you had are which I have now!)
I hope you are well and send you kisses from Buenos Aires!
Regards,
Lorena
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